Jump to content

Divx to DVD converter wanted.


DennisD

Recommended Posts

  • Moderators

Been googling around quite a bit, trying to find a freeware Divx to DVD converter with no luck.

 

I want a freeware one to try, because by nature of what the process does, there must be quite a loss in quality, but I would like to see for myself how much is lost without wasting money.

 

The other alternative of course is a standalone DVD player that plays Divx movies, and there are quite a few on the market for as little as ?30.

 

I've seen some very capable little DVD players at that price these days.

 

Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

While searching around, came across this video help site with guides on converting just about anything.

 

Also came across DVD Flick, another open source converter which will do Divx to DVD. (Allegedly)

 

Video Help:

 

DVD Flick:

 

It's quite likely that, as usual, I'm the last person to find these sites. So if you already know about them, you don't need to tell me. 1%20(221).gif

 

And if you haven't, I hope you find them useful. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

Well, I seem to be commandeering this thread with my own posts, but I thought it worth a mention that I've just converted a Divx movie to a DVD movie that will play on any home DVD player, using DVD Flick.

 

The operation couldn't have been simpler, although it took quite some time.

 

The converted movie is audibly and visually as good as the source Divx file, and the DVD Flick installation package comes with all the re-authoring, encoding, and burning software included, and it's free.

 

Hope this is of some use.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Moderators
Well, I seem to be commandeering this thread with my own posts, but I thought it worth a mention that I've just converted a Divx movie to a DVD movie that will play on any home DVD player, using DVD Flick.

 

The operation couldn't have been simpler, although it took quite some time.

 

The converted movie is audibly and visually as good as the source Divx file, and the DVD Flick installation package comes with all the re-authoring, encoding, and burning software included, and it's free.

 

Hope this is of some use.

I've bookmarked that site based upon your comments, and will try that app out if/when I do some conversion in the future. Although it will probably be some time before I use it as I rarely burn DVDs, maybe 1 to 5 of them per year (well perhaps 5 is an over estimate).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

Another very good freeware Divx to DVD converter is VSO DivxtoDVD, which I've had success with.

 

Once again, it takes a bit of time, makes a smaller converted file than DVD Flick, is simplicity itself to use, and automatically inserts chapters into the conversion. Chapters can be set up manually in DVD Flick.

 

VSO DivxtoDVD is available on a quite extensive and up-to-date "last freeware site".

 

I've dl'd a few things off here, and so far they've all scanned as clean.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

VSO DivxtoDVD is available on a quite extensive and up-to-date "last freeware site".

 

I've dl'd a few things off here, and so far they've all scanned as clean.

I've got stuff off there before and its a pretty safe site (though McAfee SiteAdvisor claims one dodgy download on there)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

An observation for anyone planning to convert Divx to DVD using either DVD Flick or VSO DivxtoDVD.

 

Done a few conversions now, with the following results.

 

No conversion or burn failures. Everything has played fine on standalone DVD player.

 

Sound is absolutely perfect in every conversion.

 

Sharpness and colour are as good as the original Divx.

 

The only minus point I can give the process is in horizontal movement. I guess this is related to the quality of the original DVD to Divx conversion, and the amount of compression involved. The effect is a very very slight jerkiness of lateral movement across the screen. If you're not a perfectionist, you probably wouldn't notice it. (Until now :P )

 

VSO DivxtoDVD makes a smaller file than DVD Flick. If I knew how to set up a menu with IFO Edit or suchlike, I could get 2 movies on 1 disk. (Looking into that at the moment). Using Shrink 3.2 I've gotten two movies down a few meg to about 2.3gb each with no discernible difference in picture quality.

 

Anyway, as it takes some time to do a conversion, 2 hours with a 90min movie with DVD Flick, I thought it might be helpful to pass on my experiences.

 

Open to any constructive comments if anyone wants to pass them on.

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

I discovered this forum because of a match on Dennis D.'s original post -- I wanted to do exactly what he did: create DVD compatible disk from a movie I had on my PC, a Divx movie.

 

Following along the thread, I downloaded a copy ofDVD flick. The first project I tried was putting 4 movies on a standard DVD. The utility told me I didn't have enough space so I deleted one "title", as they are called and burned a DVD, WITH A NICE LITTLE MENU, no problem.

 

DVD flick handles multiple titles intuitively, using a user selected "frame" from the movie as a thumbnail for the menu choice -- really slick. It did take almost 3 hours to burn the DVD with almost 5 hours of content (three normal length movies). I have a dual core processor and the utility makes use of this and even has a option to shut down your computer after it has finished -- allowing for bedtime burning, something that makes a lot of sense given how long it takes and how tied up the machine will be in doing the process.

 

All in all, a very nice application, I give it 10 of 10 and recommend it highly. It even has a "entertain me" button for gamers who want to wait and watch it work. I won't tell here what it does to entertain the user -- go get the utility and find out for yourself!

 

Make sure to donate, using pay pal or whenever, to the authors of this great little program -- it was refreshing to discover a "no strings attached" freeware product like this, amid all the sneaky, snake oil, smoke and mirrors methods out there to extort a fee from a user for trying a "open-source" product. Bravo for DVDflick!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators
5 hours of content (three normal length movies)

Holy thread revival Batman!

 

Unfortunately that amount of playtime will result into a low video bitrate, but if you can put up with the resulting bad quality more power to you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Holy thread revival Batman!

 

Unfortunately that amount of playtime will result into a low video bitrate, but if you can put up with the resulting bad quality more power to you.

the movies were only 600 to 700 Meg in size anyway, so selecting the "normal" quality (which is recommended), viewing the movies on a regular television looked actually very good. You figure, the resolution of a normal (low definition?) TV, even a good-sized flatscreen, is less than your typical SVGA monitor.

 

I was actually surprised at how good the quality seemed. Next time, I might select the higher quality setting but I am betting that the actual visual appearance won't be any better. It's just nice to have a way of putting whatever video I might have (the 11-year-olds dance recital recorded on my digital camera) on to a format that "Aunt Bessie" won't have any trouble viewing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

Hi Captain Pike, and welcome to Piriform.

 

It's nice to see someone getting benefit from an oldish thread. I'm pleased it worked out for you, and the afterdawn site is a "Treasure Trove" of guides.

 

One important piece of information I can add to this thread, is that I have since discovered the cause of the lateral jerky movement I was finding in 99% of the DivX movies I converted to DVD Compliant ... Frame Rate!!

 

I'm in the UK where the standard frame rate for film is PAL, 25 Frames Per Second. Most of the DivX movies I was converting were in NTSC, which has a "film" frame rate of 23.976 (as opposed to the NTSC "video" frame rate of 29.970).

 

Once I had discovered the cause of the jerkiness, with some help from Andavari, I then had to find a way to convert NTSC 23.976 FPS to PAL 25 FPS.

 

The solution that's works best for me uses two freeware applications.

 

Avanti: This one originally posted by BrownSugar

 

For demuxing (separating) the separate Audio and Video files, and converting both to 25 FPS in the process.

 

This results in a slightly shorter movie due to the faster frame rate, and Avanti does this converting/shortening while at the same time adjusting the pitch of the audio track to compensate for the faster frame rate.

 

AviDemux: Originally passed to me by Andavari.

 

For muxing (joining back together) the audio and video files into a now 25 FPS DivX (AVI) movie.

 

There are other ways with commercial software, but this method, for me, produces the smoothest results playback wise.

 

The links above are for more recent versions of the software than the ones I'm using. I'm now updating, and if it's any easier with the new versions to convert frame rates, I'll post the details.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.